Oil on Water
by 157 yrs
Summary: Because the blind eye cannot see a broken heart. Seventy-five short drabbles on the Fourth Espada and his Human Charge. Ulquiorra X Orihime


Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

1. Company

She wasn't anything like he expected. A strong, weak, foolish and wise woman. He wasn't anything like she thought. Apathetic, inquisitive, indifferent and careful hollow.

2. Hunger

He could deny it all he wanted, but whenever the woman was around, Ulquiorra's appetite always increased.

3. Absence

She had warmth where he was cold. She had light where he was dark. She had a heart where he… was empty.

4. Trade

Orihime lost her sun and friends and freedom when she left with him to Hueco Mundo. In return, she gained the moon, deadly allies and a man who was just as shackled as she was.

5. Standard

Orihime found it hilarious when Ulquiorra first told her that they didn't wear undergarments in Hueco Mundo. Then he saw her in her white uniform and quickly changed his mind.

6. Horror

He found her smiles and innocence horrifying. How could he ever hope to keep her unmolested in a world of pain and death?

7. Change

He sought to transform her from the inside out. What he wasn't expecting was his own metamorphosis.

8. Green

The Woman remarked once, that his eyes were green with envy. She thought it was because of Kurosaki - kun, when it reality it was because of her heart.

9. Flower

Ulquiorra decided that one day, perhaps the Woman could bloom into a deadly flower - if she so wished it.

10. Stand

No matter how many times he pushed her down, she stood again and again until at last, he lost his own resolve.

11. Detective

He was determined to discredit the existence of her heart. She was determined to prove his.

12. Tire

She was pleasantly surprised to know that despite him being an entirely different species, they still had sleep in common.

13. Age

It was disheartening for Orihime, to know that Ulquiorra was an ageless creature and that he would always look the same - when it fifty years she would be an old, wrinkled lady. Ulquiorra thought her fears were unfounded because her body had been converted into spiritual energy when she had entered Hueco Mundo.

14. Treasure

Orihime thought she was a a lowly prisoner, not worth the scuff marks on the bottom of Ulquiorra's shoes – then she saw how he treated the Arrancar who were his allies.

15. Sick

What kind of twisted person was she to grow attached to her jailor? It wasn't Stockholm Syndrom – their connection was so much more and that made her feel even worse.

16. Frighten

It frightened Orihime when she imagined Ulquiorra as a human. She wanted him in her life so badly that sometimes it hurt.

17. Puzzle

Ulquiorra often wondered if his curiosity would be sated if he broke the woman's heart. More importantly, he wondered if he could ever put it back together. The breaking was inevitable.

18. Acting

Everyday she watched him and everyday her longing to reach out to him grew. Finally at last she acted on those desires and reached across the void and kissed him.

19. Key

It was a good thing that hearts played a key role in Aizen's plan. Otherwise, Ulquiorra knew that he would have never been permitted to touch the woman.

20. Cherry

She was untouched before he came to her. What she didn't know - and he would never remember - was that so was he.

21. First

The first time he had her, he thought he broke her. Humans were so fragile.

22. Wings

Despite his released form, Ulquiorra quickly learned that the woman had wings of her own and they did not burn no matter how high into the sun she flew.

23. Punished

Ulquiorra was always very creative when he dished out his punishments. Instead of fire, he could make her skin burn with kisses and instead of beatings, he could make her ache with the denial.

24. Hurt

The Woman was unusually cruel for such a pure creature. The thought of her ever leaving hurt him more than any pain he had ever experienced.

25. Secret

They thought there were careful but everyone was aware of how the walls would tremor and how the woman would smell after the Fourth and his charge spent time together.

26. Smitten

The Shun Shun Rikka sprites were all different aspects to the woman's soul. So then why did the one called 'Lily' seem smitten with him and more importantly – what aspect of the woman's soul was that?

27. Surveillance

They often slept in his room because unlike hers, there were no cameras.

28. Grave

Orihime would take some of the happenings in Las Noches to her grave. Those secrets were her own.

29. Property

After a while, Orihime forgot whose property she was suppose to be.

30. Scar

Orihime had a secret scar that Ulquiorra had seared with his mouth, right above the pounding organ of her heart.

31. Flesh

She was very disgruntled to learn that no matter how hard she tried, she could never leave a love mark on his hierro; but some scars ran deeper than skin.

32. Raise

Once in a while a rumor about the 4th Espada and his charge would reach Aizen's ears and the ruler of Las Noches would raise his eyebrow at the scandal of it all.

33. Sleep

The woman sang in her sleep. He growled.

34. Royalty

They called her the Princess of Las Noches, but Ulquiorra always thought the title was absurd. Clearly she was the Queen of Hearts.

35. Lucky

The woman was fortunate that she had slapped the most civil of the Arrancars. If it had been Grimmjow, he would have ripped her face off in retaliation.

36. Gentle

Ulquiora was surprisingly very gentle to her, while she in turn was a very vicious, overzealous lover.

37. Remove

For all his encouragement and demands that she conform to the Arrancar uniform, he was often the one removing it from her.

38. Game

Orihime felt like she was competing in a game that she had never played before and Ulquiorra wasn't the best of referees.

39. Rudimentary

The woman told Ulquiorra he was very handsome, but none of it meant anything to him. Surely if she had seen him formerly as a hollow she would have been repulsed. Surely she would have quaked in fear if she ever saw him in his released form.

40. Face

Orihime thought someday she would marry her knight in shining armor; but as the hours passed she feared more and more that her future was staring her in the face with an eternal frown and two green eyes.

41. Time

Ulquiorra was aware of the woman's influence. It was unacceptable and unwelcome; but even he did not know how to turn back the hands of time to prevent it.

42. Nostalgic

He was the epitome of the void, but there had been a time when he knew sorrow and pain and despair.

43. Hide

Ulquiorra tried to hide it but no matter where he looked, the woman was always reflected in his eyes.

44. Choose

She dreaded the day when Kurisaki-kun arrived. Whoever she chose then, she knew her heart would lose.

45. Desert

She wanted to bind two hearts together like the rain bonded the earth and sky together; but there was no rain in the desert and no hearts to bind in Hueco Mundo.

46. World

It saddened her to think that without the Winter War, their worlds would have never touched.

47. Lies

She always told him the truth. It puzzled her though, because Ulquiorra always thought her words were lies. It was as if he expected it.

48. Passionate

Orihime found that her warden wasn't a very passionate lover, but what he lacked in ardency he more than made up for in intensity.

49. Family

Offspring – it was a very ugly word to Ulquiorra. He didn't want to gain any additions. To Orihime it was a very terrifying word. She didn't want to ever lose any gained additions.

50. Sword

He had Murcielago and she had her Shun Shun Rika. His greatest strength was Nihility. Hers was her heart. His despair was no match for her hope.

51. Roar

It was too bad that Grimmjow had gotten to her before Ulquiorra had. Otherwise, she would have seen how brutally he would have dismembered the two Arrancar that had trespassed upon her.

52. Red

He thought the coloring of her hair was red, until he finally saw what blood looked like on her and realized that he had been wrong.

53. Repulsive

He welcomed the affection she gave to him, but was repulsed when others showered her with it.

54. Love

He liked to think he hated her. First, it was because she was so lowly and ignorant and human and his enemy. Later, it was because she was so much higher and wise and alive and because as enemies he dare not use another word.

55. Summer

Ulquiorra's hierro was completely ineffective against her warmth. Whenever he held her, it felt like he was walking on the surface of a Summer sun.

56. Winter

Time was irrelevant in Hueco Mundo. There was no change in climate or seasons; but to Orihime it always felt like the Winter.

57. Skill

He had muscles. She had flexibility.

58. Master

Aizen's word may have been law, but Orihime quickly learned that Ulquiorra made the rules.

59. Hideous

When she first saw him in his released form, she had been awed by his beauty. It was a hideous thought.

60. Implied

When Ulquiorra fought the Kurosaki boy, it was implied that they were playing for keeps.

61. Trance

Hearing that boy's name repeatedly spilled from the Woman's lips was not the kind of despair Ulquiorra wanted to drive her to.

62. Gamble

She put her life on the line and in the end, the only one to lose it was him.

63. Reach

The first time she tried to hold his hand, at the beginning, he shook her off of him. The second time she tried to hold his hand, at the end, he regretted the first.

64. Weapon

Hollows became obsolete when they were pitted against their own hearts. The Woman had turned his own newly gained one against him.

65. Prize

They both had their eyes on the prize.

66. Meal

Ulquiorra plotted to serve her friends' heart to her on a silver platter. It would be one dish he would personally shove down her throat; but when that day finally arrived, the only heart served to her was his own.

67. Regret

Ulquiorra's greatest regret was not taking her away sooner.

68. Music

The woman's voice was like bells but it wasn't until she told Ulquiorra that she wasn't afraid of him that he heard true music.

69. Salvation

Ulquiorra thought he would be the woman's reluctant savior. After humankind was exterminated, she alone would be preserved. He never expected in the end that she would be the one to save him.

70. Future

No one knew what became of Ulquiorra after he turned to ash. His existence was his own secret and so was the knowledge that it would be a long time, if ever, before he was reunited with the woman again.

71. Penance

What the Espada didn't know was that she forgave him.

72. Conceal

What Orihime didn't know was that there was a deep fear within her of herself.

73. Fate

They couldn't change what was meant to be.

74. Begin

Neither one could prevent where their hearts would take them next.

75. Impossible

But when green eyes and brown eyes finally met once again they knew that they had beaten the odds.

* * *

_* Zelka94 made the cover art for me for my birthday_


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